1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of inspecting a cornering control mechanism which independently controls right and left brakes at the time of oversteering or understeering of a vehicle such as a motor vehicle, whereby the vehicle is brought closer to neutral steering.
2. Description of the Related Art
The cornering control mechanism has the following arrangement. Namely, signals from a lateral G (gravity) sensor, a yaw rate sensor, a steering angle sensor, and a wheel speed sensor are inputted into a controller. Based on the signals from these sensors, there are computed an angular velocity of revolution (i.e., revolution around the center of turning curvature) and an angular velocity of rotation (i.e., rotation on a vertical axis of rotation of the vehicle). When the angular velocity of rotation has exceeded the angular velocity of revolution, a judgement is made that the vehicle is oversteered and, therefore, a braking force is applied to the wheels on an outer side of cornering by the operation of a brake. When the angular velocity of rotation has become smaller than the angular velocity of revolution, a judgement is made that the vehicle is understeered and, therefore, a braking force is applied to the wheels on the inner side of cornering by the operation of the brake.
The inspection of this kind of cornering control mechanism is conventionally made in an actual running method in which the vehicle actually runs on a test course or in an electronic simulation system in which simulated signals are inputted into a controller to see whether or not the controller outputs an appropriate brake control signals.
The actual running method must depend for its judgement on a driver's driving senses and therefore lacks in reliability. Further, because of the time required for the inspection, it is impossible to perform the inspection on all of the vehicles. In the electronic simulation system, on the other hand, the functions of the controller can be inspected, but an overall inspection including the sensors and the brake cannot be made. This system therefore has a problem in the point of quality guarantee.
In view of the above points, the present invention has an object of providing an inspection method in which the inspection of the cornering control mechanism can be performed on a bench type of testing apparatus by running or driving the vehicle thereon.